visit. palestinian sources tell al jazeera the deal could include the deal of easing border crossings. benjamin netanyahu met with ban ki-moon and said israel is open to a long-term solution. >> if a long-term solution can be put in place through diplomatic means israel would be a willing partner. >> this is, obviously, a fluid situation, my friends. we are awaiting more word from gaza from our correspondents there. just in terms of the optics and where the white house is on this, the facts, sam, that hillary clinton left her last international trip with the president to go and be present for what may be a cease-fire, certainly sends a message as far as how close we may be to a deal and the fact that the white house knows it needs to be more active in this situation. >> they wouldn't send her out there for it to suddenly dissolve too more chaos. it would look foolish for them to do that. we're get close to a cease-fire. let's not lose sight of sort of the short-term story line for

the long-term consequences of this. and by that i mean, we're negotiating a cease-fire, not a peace agreement and this white house has been unable to really forge through. if anything, it's sort of reversed or entrenched the middle east peace process during their watch and i don't think there's anyone who looks at what's happened over the past couple days and feels optimistic about what the future will bring. if anything, the hardliners in each respective camp, seem to be benefitting from hostilities instead of allowing the moderates to breathe and do diplomatic negotiations. >> the narrowing slice of the middle in terms of moderates is something we'll talk about. let's go to gaza, nbc foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin. it's good to see you as always. what do we know in terms of the outline of any brokered cease-fire and your assessment of hillary clinton's role in this or her presence at the table? >> sure.

in fact, i was just speaking to a source at the presidential palace in egypt who assured me there was no announcement yet to be made from the presidential palace regarding a truce agreement. he gave me a simple explanation. the president's sister passed away in egypt, still at the funeral and with family. he was not expected to be back in cairo to make an announcem t announcement. it was something that would probably come out of the egyptian intelligence service which has been negotiating intensity. egypt's president mohamed morsi is from the muslim brother hood. it's unlike he he has been involved in negotiations with the israeli side. the only people that could negotiate between the israelis and meet with hamas and other palestinian factions are probably the intelligence agencies there. that's where we understand the negotiations to still be ongoing. there's an outlined agreement, but nobody has signed the paper. that's why i think people here are still very apprehensive this could be the final hurdle. you're talking about the

presence or the arrival of u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton. there is no doubt the u.s. can play a very important role in this. it can exert a tremendous amount of leverage on the israelis to avoid a ground invasion of the gaza strip. while the u.s. does believe that israel has a right too defend itself there is a widening belief here among many, this is what is being communicated to the u.s. by egyptian officials, that a ground invasion and further military escalation will not solve this. we've been down this road before. >> go ahead, ayman. if you're still there. >> i'm still here. i was saying that they've been down this road before, used the military option back in 2008, and previously it hasn't solved the gaza problem and so many people are saying that this has to stop. to really think of a new paradigm shift in how to solve the crisis in gaza and the larger with the israeli/palestinian conflict. >> yesterday we were talking about the americans passively having too light a footprint in

the region, against the backdrop of the president in southeast asia. we know from the white house pool reports the president had his third conversation with egyptian president morsi a few hours ago. in terms of hillary clinton bringing folks to the table, in terms of the role for americans in this particular set of negotiations, do you think we are playing a pivotal role? >> well, the united states can definitely play a pivotal role. i don't think that people in this part of the world feel it has played the role it should be playing and that comes down to two very important factors. one, the united states does not have any direct contact with the palestinian factions which it and israel and others label as terrorist organizations, despite the fact that hamas did win democratic elections here, despite the fact it is a part of the fabric of palestinian politics that cannot be ignored or isolated or marginalized. they have focused on the palestinian authority in the west bank. that hasn't necessarily produced tangible results. there's a lot of problems in terms of getting everyone on the

same table. not everyone sits on the same table. so people would first -- and u.s. officials in the past including president jimmy carter and others have argued that dynamic in itself has to change. there has to be a bigger, wider table for negotiations in order for this problem to be solved. the other issue has to be able to rein in israel in terms of some of the acships it takes on the ground. we referenced this yesterday. one of the biggest issue because israel is a dependent recipient of u.s. military aid and money, when it comes to expansion in the west bank it hasn't stopped despite the fact that the u.s. opposes that policy. people in this part of the world which say how can the u.s. which gives so much money to israel not stop it from doing something against the u.s. interest, which is a two-state solution. >> i don't want to say our hands are tied but ayman points out two points. the faction u.s. had relationships with tends to be the moderates or hosni mubarak or those people are gone or the influence in the wane, and then the complicated relationship

u.s. has with israel. when we look at a conflict like this, where does the president go from here? in terms of having an active role in this, how much desire do you think there is on the part of the american public to see america get involved in this? >> it's an interesting and important question. few things. this wasn't planned but it was interesting the president and hillary clinton were in asia at the time that all this began happening because for some time now there has been an attempted pivot towards foreign policy away from the middle east and asia. as gaza shows that's still the world's hot spot and we have to be there. i do think, though, that there's going to be more pressure. the u.s. is not going to say quite this is your problem to the region, but there is going to be more pressure for egypt to get involved. we don't quite know what kind of a leader president morsi is yet. we're all watching and learning. egypt will have to be an important part of the solution. the door between egypt and gaza was pretty much shut during the mubarak era. despite morsi being a member of the muslim brotherhood. it's still pretty closed. egypt has 80 mill enpeople, many

whom are are poor, i think they're probably on the fence about wanting to take responsibility for another 1.6, 1.8 people in gaza although i think both the u.s. and israel would like them to play a bigger role. >> before we let you go i want to ask you about turkey. at love speculation -- the prime minister would play a larger role in brokering a cease-fire, doesn't sound like they've been active thus far. they seem to be an emerging power in terms of middle east conflict and especially against the backdrop of a rising up islamist powers? >> well, you know, the relationships in the middle east between these countries are always very interesting to watch behind the scenes. turkey is a country throughout its past that has certainly had relations with israel very close security cooperation. in recent years that has been strained as the government of turkey has shifted away from a slightly more secular one to more islamist one. if you look at the rise of politics in this part the world, the umbrella organization, the

one that gave birth to all of the movements was egypt's muslim brotherhood 80 years ago. they are pivotal to the rise of political islam which includes hamas, includes the party in turkey. at the end of the day it will always come back to egypt for the simple fact egypt has leverage over political islamic movements like hamas and israel. it has a relationship with israel. it can sit on the table with both of the parties. turkey over the past several years since the incident where they tried to send aid to gaza and had their citizens killed has had strained relations. it false back in the lap of the egyptians. this is an important test. egypt seen itself as the center of the arab world for centuries. they take the palestinian cause at heart. they have fought wars with israel on behalf of the palestinians. this cuts deep in the arab identity and simply won't give it up, won't let anyone assume the negotiations on behalf of the palestinians and that's why people have seen this, the rise of the muslim brother hood and particularly the presidency of mohammed morsi as a positive sin

to be a break through for the region for stability and for u.s. interests as well. >> we will certainly be following it. all roads lead to cairo. that's been true for hundreds if not thousands of years. ayman mohyeldin thank you for your reporting from gaza. stay safe. after the break, loopholes, brackets, increased revenue. are democrats and republicans ready to come to the table and make a deal? we will talk to luke russert and martin bashir about getting a piece of the tax pie, next on "now." ♪

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za. could you see yourself supporting a plan for raising tax rates? >> i'm not for raising tax rates. >> i don't want to get into negotiating with the media but i do not support raising tax rates. >> period? >> i've been saying that my entire career. >> that's the man tapped to be the gop's point person to work out a fiscal cliff deal with democrats and to get his republican colleagues to support it. what of the number two, house majority leader eric cantor. >> we don't understand why raising tax rates is the solution if you want to see people get back to work. >> here's the number three, house republican whip kevin mccarthy. >> if he wants revenues, we're not saying no to revenues. what we're saying is, you don't get that by raising the tax rates. you get that by loopholes. >> yes. loopholes. you may remember them from the presidential campaign. and what of them? politico's headline today, tax loopholes alone cannot solve fiscal cliff. the article begins raise revenues and reform the tax

code, easy, eliminate all the tax loopholes, right? good luck with that. as someone else might say -- >> the math tends not to work. >> as the two parties return to the table next week a "usa today" gallup poll suggests the public trusts president obama more than republicans to negotiate in good faith. 65% believe obama will make a sincere effort to work with republicans, less than half, 48%, say the same about the gol gop's willingness to work with the president. 57% say congressional democrats will make a sincere effort to compromise. joining the panel, host of the show on msnbc, our very own martin bashir, the queen bee of thegrio.com joy reid and my celebrity doppelganger, capitol hill correspondent luke russert. luke, go to you first on this. seeing as you are privy to the examinaticomings and goings of n capitol hill. >> oh, yes. >> i ask you about the choice of

paul ryan to be involved in a negotiation when he has seemed to dig his heels in a fairly ideological way for the last several years? >> well, it's something that speaker boehner has done to exert his influence over the house republican conference. the idea from my conversations with boehner aides is that look, paul ryan is a very popular figure within the house republican conference. any possible deal or compromise must have his fingerprints on it. but make no mistake, alex, this is not going to be paul ryan as the chief negotiator of this deal. it's still going to be john boehner, john boehner's people, they are battle tested when it comes to these deficit deals and having paul ryan in the room is simply a way for john boehner to try to avoid and watch out -- avoid any consternation within his conference and watch out for his flank which as we know from 2011 he's had a mighty difficult time getting things through his group of fellow republicans who are not too keen on any

compromise, be much less one in this case that could increase tax rates. >> it seems to be the congressional iteration of keep your friends close, your enemies even closer. i will say, given that sh, what eric cantor? i keep expecting him to pop up with his little glasses and we see nothing. >> eric cantor has done a turnaround from 2011 in the summer when a lot of folks said he was the reason why a deficit deal was not able to be accomplished. from conversations i've had, eric cantor is very much now a team player. creeding to john boehner's authority, let be john boehner negotiate this deal. all speculation he will not get involved in the same level. certainly he will be briefed and make his opinions known but he's not going to try to tell john boehner you cannot get this through the conference. look at it from a broad perspective, from folks i've spoken to, eric cantor is thinking like this -- general

belief and consensus is if the gop wants to get in 2014 that boehner will most likely walk away in 2016. if cantor can be a dutiful lieutenant until then he could until 2016 if the house republicans win with redistricting and the margins they have which looks possible, he could achieve his dream of becoming the first jewish speaker of the house. no reason to try to ascertain and go higher up like he did in 2011 which left a negative impression of him in a lot of folks' opinions. it's going to be interesting to see if he, in fact, does stay back and credes to boehner's authorities. from all the conversation that's what he seems to be doing. >> i love the mixed messages here. one, eric cantor is a team player because, two, it will personally benefit. >> that's always the truth. imagine if mitt romney had won 332 electoral college votes. what we would be looking at is the affordable care act would be toast and looking at a 20% tax

cut across the board for everybody and they would be singing that melody from the hills and valleys throughout the country. >> the republicans. >> they got shellacked and beaten and instead of actually saying okay, the electorate has spoken, the exit polls suggests the president has support for raising taxes, in the overwhelming majority, they still will not come around to accepting that the world is now as it is. almost on another mplanet like ukraines you like fox news where the discussion and the argument, i see, i seem to feel, is taking place in another place. the election actually happened in america, on planet earth. >> you know, you also have to think -- >> did it? >> i'm frequently going to the moon, sat turn and jupiter for my vacations. the moon isn't even a planet. in terms of the reality of getting anything passed, joy, nancy pelosi has 200 votes in the house. >> indeed. >> you need 218 to get anything

passed. this back and forth and sort of, you know, thing that republicans are having with themselves ultimately may forb not. >> ultimately may be for not. what has changed on this planet and whatever planet the republicans are on. >> possibly jupiter. >> the tea party caucus has lost a lot of credibility. its taking its share of the blame for what happened in terms of republicans not being able to win the senate because of the crazy candidates that came from them. eric cantor having been the chief ally of the tea party wing of the house has had to fade in the background because trying to be brutus to john boehner's caesar didn't seem like a good strategy. all john boehner has to do is willing to make a deal with nancy pelosi to go to her and say deliver your people, which she can do, and he has to find 18 of his own people who have to get re-elected in two years, districts in wing district enough where compromising is in their benefit. he can forget the tea party caucus and ignore them.

>> the number of swing districts has gone down. >> absolutely. >> and that's a big problem here. you would think it should be obvious that a tax hike is necessary to create the amount of political cohesion you need to do the rest of all of the budget balance. when you go to planet europe you can see what happens when you don't have social cohesion and trying to do austeritausterity. >> doesn't it seem like this is a lot to do about nothing. what republicans are trying to do is what any good negotiator would do, stake out a position as far along the spectrum as possible, which in this case means against any tax hikes whatsoever, and then gradually they will have to move somewhere off of that. and what they can do is they can theoretically get obama to move from $250,000 income level to $500,000 or a million which what is chuck schumer once suggested. and, you know, republicans are good at this. democrats tend to negotiate from the place where they think it's going to end up being and republicans take out as far ground as they can and move to the middle. one of the things i've gotten from my reporting is democratic aides were surprised when boehner, mcconnell, pelosi and

reid sat down with obama and obama said to them, in essence, you know, i'm fine doing tax reform in 2013, fine doing entitlement reform during 2013 but you have to get me something to get there and what i'm going to demand is some rates going up and he didn't get an explicit no, at least from what my sources are telling me from boehner. a lot of people are optimistic about that private sign that was given to them as indication that they are ready to deal even if publicly they're staking out far -- >> isn't this the case boehner has done that before. boehner in private could negotiate with the president and then he can't deliver. there's a thing called time. on december 31st doesn't matter what republicans want or don't want to do they will be negotiating a tax cut in 2013 because all the taxes will go up. >> politico says that democrats in the senate have their own fiscal concerns, fiscal cliff issues. harry reid will have to find 60 votes to extend just the middle income tax rates far from a given when a swath of the

senate's moderate democrats are up for re-election in 2014 in a nutshell, democrats haven't coalesced around a position themselves let alone found agreement with republicans. what do you make of that? >> this is a story that always comes up when discussing the bush tax cuts. the red state democrats, people like tim johnson, especially those up for re-election in 2014, will there be some difficulty on the democratic side essentially getting rid of the bush tax cuts for those making 250 or above? of course. we've heard concerns from mary landrieu before. kay hagen about that before. however from a conversations i've had the belief is that if there is some sort of bigger deal that is signed off by john boehner, signed off by mcconnell, it gives these folks cover while the republicans are going to make a lot of noise, democrats aren't even altogether in their own caucus, don't know

what they support, the conventional wisdom in terms of the democratic aides i've spoken to, look, this comes out every time there's a tax story. those folks will fall in line because there will be a bipartisan agreement. and it won't come down to harry reid having to scrounge up 60 votes. what republicans would he be able to find for 60 vote threshold like that. only so many olympia snowes and dick lugars out there. >> one of the big points of the story is that the senate has already voted on this and they voted without a filibuster in favor of letting the bush tax cuts expire for incomes over $250,000. that was an underreported very big development in the saga, this is before the election, showed you can take this vote and survive. and so now the microscope turns to the house to see what the house republicans will do. now, it might have to go back to the senate, be subjected to a filibuster. we're overstating how concerned many of these blue -- red state democrats are about this because

they actually did already have this vote and saw the electoral implications of it. >> and if you look at the party trend lines right, martin n terms of being reasonable about these things, democrats tend to be and that's both supported by data and anecdotally. obama's poll person polled 800 and 9% believe changes are needed to fix social security and medicare. 17% believe no changes should be made. there is an understanding on the part of the left that you are going to have to have some entitlement reform. >> that openness to compromise has been embody by the president who himself at every opportunity has said he's not closing his own mind to the possibility of reform in those big entitlement areas. but you don't hear that reflected back from republicans. and i think that to luke's point about the democrats and sam's point, i think that the president now having been through what happened in 2011, must feel the wind behind his

sails from the house because had he can't fold again on this issue. he can't. >> i don't think he will. i think he's taking that message to the american public and going to get it ratified and bring it back to washington. >> you do? >> i do. >> from your lips. >> from my lips to obama's ears. luke russert, my friend, we have to leave it there. we know that you and your boat shoes will be making some tracks in the next -- >> too cold for the boat shoes. switched to the bucks. >> the bucks. a seasonal shoe. i should have known. >> seasonal shoe. you have hipster sam stein there. he's also a good stylist. >> hipster thrown out. >> martin. >> you got everything. >> luke russert thank you as always. happy early thanksgiving my friend. >> you as well. >> "time" magazine rana fa ru har, happy early thanksgiving to you. >> thank you. >> the holidays are upon us. we will talk turkey, literally, with the "new york times" national editor. that's up ahead. americans are always ready to work hard for a better future.

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together for your future. oh, let me guess --ou see this? more washington gridlock. no, it's worse -- look, our taxes are about to go up. not the taxes on our dividends though, right? that's a big part of our retirement. oh, no, it's dividends, too. the rate on our dividends would more than double. but we depend on our dividends to help pay our bills.

we worked hard to save. well, the president and congress have got to work together to stop this dividend tax hike. before it's too late.

coming up, feeding america's nora dale will and share our strengths bill shore take a sheet is seat at our table as we discuss the issue of hunger in america next on "now." people really love snapshot from progressive, but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. you're not filming this, are you?

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♪ you make me happy when skies are gray ♪ [ female announcer ] you know exactly what it takes to make them feel better. ♪ you make me happy [ female announcer ] that's why you choose children's tylenol. the same brand your mom trusted for you when you were young. ♪ how much i love you [ humming ] [ female announcer ] children's tylenol, the #1 brand of pain and fever relief recommended by pediatricians and used by moms decade after decade. [ humming ] according to george washington university's face the facts usa, americans wasted more than 33 million tons of food in 2010. the organization says that's enough discarded food to fill up the empire state building 91

times. as some americans toss out their meals there's another segment of the pop plation struggling to put food on the table. according to the usda last year, one in six americans or 50 million people lived in food insecure households mean at some point during the year they worried about running out of food or had to skip meals because they didn't have enough money to buy them. hunger in america underscores the persistent problem of chronic unemployment and poverty. according to the census bureau 48.5 million lived below the poverty line last year, be up more than 2 million. these people are reliant on food stamps and food banks according to feeding america, 37 million americans turned to food pantries and soup kitchens each year. the usda says more than half of households receiving food stamps were food insecure. joining me founder and ceo of share our strength, bill shore and joining the package here in new york, chief communications and development officer for feeding america, nora daily and

"the new york times" national editor sam sifton, the author of "thanksgiving: how to cook it well." i want to go to you first on this, when with you talk about the problem of hunger in america it is hugely underdiscussed issue and you look at the numbers both for households and children alone. i know share our strength is focused on child hunger in america. it's -- the rates have remained virtually unchanged in the last five years. what needs to be done to address this problem? >> well, think one of the most important things to realize about hunger which we tend to think of as a thanksgiving week issue to discuss, is that, of course, for, you know, many americans it's a year-round problem. 46 million americans are on food stamps for the first time in history. all that to say, though, it is a solvable problem. we're not talking about syria, not talking about sudan, we're not talking about international crises. we're talking about hunger here at home where we've got the food and the nutrition programs to deal with this. of the 46 million food stamps

half are kids. we have school breakfasts, summer meals. if we can get a sufficient number enrolled we can make a difference. it's a health care, education issue. how can we have a strong america with weak kids? >> bill makes a great kid. we are the united states of america, we are one of the richest if not the richest on the planet and the fact is that one in five americans is not getting the food they need. this is basic survivalp. the thing that shocks me when we have this conversation, when we talk about food stamps, the rhetoric around food stamps, whether the presidential election cycle where you're vilified for being part of a taker and one who is on the doll of the makers. and then the reality of actually being on food stamps and a really great article in "rolling stone" several months ago that talked about what you need to meet the threshold to get on food stamps and effectively, i'll read an excerpt. it says most of the social service systems in the united

states function not to help people like curtis and consee ta cats, two people mentioned in the story get back to where they were to a point of productive stability, but simply to keep them from starving or more often, to merely reduce the chances that they will starve. which to me is shocking, nora. >> you know, food stamps are the first line of defense against hunger in america and very few people realize that. the charitable sector like feeding america is really here to be supplemental support to the federal nutrition programs. i think one thing that is rarely discussed is that of all the federal programs out there, food stamps has proven to be one of the most efficient, effective and accurate programs that truly provides a household need that these folks would have no other way of putting food on the stable. >> sam, you know, i keep going back to the newt gingrich comment calling president obama the food stamp president as if that's the worse thing in the entire world. a farm bill being held up in congress, both the senate and house version, cut billions of

dollars from the program, the senate bill a little less draconian. there needs to be a cultural shift around the way we think of people who are in need in this country. >> that's absolutely right. one of the markers that shows us this is who is showing up at food pantries. we're seeing more and more people show up who don't qualify for governmental assistance and yet still need food. this is a crisis that is getting worse, not better at this juncture. >> bill, when you look at those stats as sam mentions in terms of food stamp eligibility, this is the gross monthly income for a family of four is $2,498. for a family of four. and you can't have more than 2,000 in countable resources such as a bank account. some states if you're living in your car your car is counted toward the $2,000 figure. it makes getting to the basic level of sus sti nence, to say food stamps, that much more difficult. >> to add one political dimension, just yesterday president obama's pollsters were telling us these charges about

president obama being the food stamp president, one of the things that the obama campaign understood from the research was that this was not hurting president obama or his re-election chances at all because most americans found themselves in very fragile economic circumstances. they realized that most people who use food stamps use them in a temporary way and many americans felt that they were at risk of sliding back economically and might some day have to avail themselves of the program itself. so that turned out not to be a very effective line of attack because i think most people see food stamps for what they are, a program in which the fraud and the abuse of yesteryear has been rung out of it so it's less than 1% and critical lifeline for americans, one that we have to protect. >> it's so telling, isn't it? >> and that's why the comments about free stuff is so reprehensible because for mitt romney to talk about that privately at a fund-raiser and then in speaking to his donors, it indicated that he had absolutely no experience whatsoever of what's happening in people's lives.

my wife for the last six years has volunteered at the barry medical mission, one of the oldest in new york, a nurse and mid wife. she doesn't get paid for any of her service, one of my children actually helps makes pies for thanksgiving to raise funds as well. when you go to the mission and you see 200 men ordinary looking people, they're not disshovelled scumbags, these are responsible people to some extent whose lives have been in some ways made very difficult and see the need, it makes what mitt romney says so profoundly offensive to anybody who's ever had any experience of this kind of situation. >> what is totally weird to me and which i don't understand, you look at the states that are opting out of expanding the medicaid roles, the states with governors who have vilified basically the american social safety net and they are the same states where people have the highest rates of uninsurance. the states with higher food insecurity rates than the u.s. average to say mississippi has a

19.2% average, arkansas 19.2%. they do have a democratic governor. texas, rick perry's state, 18.5%. joy, you know, you talk about governors who are legislating against their own constituents and this would seem to be that in action. >> absolutely. look who was not on that list, florida. florida was one of those states where it has a tea party governor who is beholden to whatever the tea party wants but he has blinked from this idea of walking away from such things as federal poverty programs because in florida, that was one of those states to amplify martin's point where after the bottom dropped out of the housing market, which is so critical to florida, a lot of middle-class folks found themselves for the first time in their lives going to food pantries, using food stamps. these were folks who were for the first time ever having to go to walmart with an ebt card where the money did not come from employment. a lot of people got very close to this idea of poverty and these governors who are saying no to aid from the federal government, in a lot of cases they think they're just hurting

the poor who refuse to get involved and pull themselves up by their boot straps, increasingly they're hurting middle class families who have fall noon poverty through no part of their own. it's one of those situations if you're in a red state you're far more likely to endure in poverty because of politics. >> becomes a purity test that exacts a steep toll in terms of the human price. nora, talk about the food pantry equation in terms of need and, you know, we've read anecdotally that, you know, in ohio there was one food pantry that said the demand was 25 to 30% greater last year, it's 25% greater than it was the year before, meaning it's a 50 to 60% increase in need in these food pantries. the recession as we're told, is, you know, we're getting better economically and yet it seems like people still can't put food on the table. >> so, unemployment is one of the single biggest driving factors in terms of the increase in the need for people visiting food banks and pantries across the u.s. and the reality is,

unemployment still remains high and typically, lags in economic recovery for one to two years. so what we're seeing in our system still today are dramatic increases in the working poor, these are families with children, they're seniors living on a fixed income. they are men out trying to find jobs to help support their families. and this is only been dramatically exacerbated by what's going on with hurricane sandy and what's hit the east coast here in the last couple weeks. so we still are seeing increases here in the east coast. we are hearing reports of over 100% increase in the amount of food that we are distributing this month in november compared to last november. >> it cannot be stated enough that the need is very much out there especially in this holiday season. mar din bashir, thank you. i wonder what is on the table at a bashir thanksgiving. >> i cook and do a fine gravy. >> if you say so yourself.

>> some spices and port which is rather beautiful. >> very fancy. >> i'm sure you have many other places. >> take that apart. >> port -- >> explain that. >> my kids refuse to eat a roast meal unless i've cooked the potatoes because i siv them in salt beforehand and par boil them, all sorts of things. >> delicious. >> your house. >> i'm inviting myself over. remember -- >> any time. >> remember to watch martin on his tv program every week day at 4:00 p.m. here on a channel we call msnbc. coming up, getting ready for the big bird. sam sifton will weigh in on appetizers, fried turkey and all the trimmings necessary for our national day of thanks. i gave birth to my daughter on may 18th, five days later, i had a massive heart attack. bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. now, i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor

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thanksgiving guests and no, it does not involve candied yams. we will have the answers to all your turkey day questions. >> this time of the year, there should be a hotline you can call with questions about cooking turkeys a special 800 number where the phones are staffed by experts. >> there is. >> what do you mean? >> the butterball hotline. >> butterball has a hotline? >> yeah. it's an 800 number, the phones are staffed by experts. >> are you kidding me? >> no. >> god, i'm sorry. i love my country. >> we will call on our very own butterball expert next on "now." [ female announcer ] think coarse facial hair removal has to be painful? challenge that with new olay facial hair removal duo. a two-step process that removes even coarse, stubborn facial hair gently. plenty of gain, without all that pain... with olay.

in about 48 hours, americans will consume some 46 million turkeys. but thanksgiving is, of course, about more than eating. in his new book "thanksgiving:

how to cook it well" sam sifton writes quote -- >> sam, we got to juice book sales in a big way. this is an awesome book. awesome book. first i want to go to bill shore over there sitting patiently in washington, as we talk about you pointed out, bill, we talk about hunger and poverty and the needy at specific times during the year but of course this is something a year-round situation. it is a way of life for millions of people in this country. what more should we be doing in our personal lives? >> well, i think you know, one the things that strikes me about the issue of hunger and being a solvable problem, there's a role for everybody to play, a strength that everybody has to share and whether that means

volunteering at a food bank or a soup kitchen or writing a check or working to make sure your local school is serving school breakfast and is set up to serve summer meals these are things that can be done. one of the things we're increasingly finding on the ground, we're talking politically before, but governor diehl of georgia has been a champion of the idea of ending child of hunger as governor mcdonnell of virginia, republican governors matching the governors in arkansas, and maryland. >> fair and very important point, bill shore. sam, talking about giving back to the community, the genesis of this book i am told was that you were actually not the butterball hotline guy but you were working the phones for "the new york times" answering questions about cooking dinner.

>> that's correct. instead of being of one of a cast of hundreds it was me and my laptop and phone and my friends and a bunch of chefs whose numbers i had who would take my call on thanksgiving day. >> that is very cool. i know that you are a thanksgiving traditionalist and i would like to highlight some of the more controversial bits in this book. >> it's a very controversial book. >> i would like everybody's thoughts on this. i reacted with horror and disbelief, which was as i have said and will say again you should make no salad and cook no appetizers whether you call them side dishes or not. i have tested this rage so you do not need to. nothing is more annoying than spending an entire day cooking for people only to see them crush their hunger an hour before dinner inhaling a pound of cheese, olives or devilled eggs. i'm one of the people that would have enraged you. >> if you came to the table after eating a pound of devilled eggs and said, sam, i'm not really all that into this turkey that would bum me out. >> bum out is fair. can you deny people thanksgiving

day appetites. >> look at this. >> oh, my goodness. here we go. >> the whole point of thanksgiving is to have the turkey the next day in your sandwich. >> both days. >> sam, i'm not getting in the way -- >> plenty leftover. let me explain if you haven't -- >> after you have the sandwich you have to have the soup on the third day. >> that's no problem. we're going to get a pound and a half per persons just to start and then up it by a few pounds at the end. turkey on the first day, sandwiches that night, soup, we're going to end up with a gumbo four days in. >> wow. that is real talk. your favorite way to prepare a turkey, roast, brine, grill, smoke roasted. >> i would say brine with a roast is my way to go. >> all right, then. >> brine with roast is the new american classic. we have on the screen a simple roast turkey is your preferred method of choice is that correct some. >> i like this one. >> which has a little in it. >> it does.

you'll see a little soy above it for saltiness. the thing i like about this recipe it gives the skin of the bird a remarkable burnished awesome golden color and leads to a gravy that is superior. >> what's your fiphilosophy on e deep fry? >> i like a deep fried bird. doesn't work well in urban environments. not a fire escape methodology. if you have a yard and some level ground, you've got good shoes, you're not a heavy drinker. >> disqualifies. >> you get a great bird. >> i think everyone is here is thankful for what looks to be the ri vival of the twinkie. can you incorporate it into a turkey dinner? >> you probably could but why would you? >> if you're not allowed to eat a block of pimento cheese beforehand the twinkie is off limits. we have to leave it there. i am starving. thank you to bill, r nora, sam,

sam and joy. i wish you all a very happy thanks gill -- thanksgiving, filled with tryptophan and good cheer and remember to grab a copy of sam sifton's book "thanksgiving: how to cook it well." that is all for "now." ari will be in for me tomorrow while i start my thanksgiving celebration on the moon. ari will have a special show from plymouth rock, joined by p.j. crowley, richard wolfe, heather mcghee, jonathan capehart and ben smith. follow us on twitter at "now" with alex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. into their work,

their name on the door, and their heart into their community. small business saturday is a day to show our support. a day to shop at stores owned by our friends and neighbors. and do our part for the businesses that do so much for us. on november 24th, let's get out and shop small.

right knew on "andrea mitchell reports" crisis point. president obama leaves cambodia after dispatching hillary clinton to help egypt try to nail down a cease-fire between israel and hamas. secretary clinton will emphasize the united stat